Banded Bananaquits!

If you're still laughing about the title, check out the wiki page.

In my continuing effort to figure out which organization to contact for the West Indies (re: Black-whiskered Vireo that might not be through USGS), I found this: Bananaquit info by Chipper Woods Bird Observatory, hosted by Wild Birds Unlimited. It's not about banding per se, but the photos and discussion are pretty exciting.

Of note, under "Banding Recoveries" it mentions this:

Between 1955 and 2000, 12,074 Bananaquits were banded. A 2003 survey in the Caribbean (Jamaica, Mexico and Puerto Rico) to detect resident and migratory birds infected with West Nile Virus found that Bananaquits do harbor the West Nile Virus (Dupuis II et al. 2003).

If you should recover a banded Bananaquit, please report the band number to the Bird Banding Lab by calling 1-800-327-BAND.

...so not only did the Bananaquit banding in this case allow regular measurements and physiological data to be collected, it also added to the knowledge of West Nile Virus carriers. Pretty neat stuff.

Eagles and bands and collars, oh my!

Edit: this post is from SeeTrail, where it was originally posted as "eagles with accessories"

Here's a post for the technophiles among us:



"It's just a map," you say. Of course it's a map, that's how people learn things!



...and now you're accusing me of posting the blurry rump of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). That accusation stands true as well. What doesn't show up in that photo is a little pack that is attached to the bird - and transmits information about the bird's geographic movement to a researcher named Brian.

Brian Mealey is the Executive Director, and thus primary researcher, when it comes to radio-collared Bald Eagles in the Everglades. There's even a page on the site that gives you a sample pair of eagle "tracks" from previous years.

We found Brian via the Tropical Audubon Society bird board, when I posted this query:
Ok, I know we bugged out of SE FL a while ago, but we were reviewing
pictures and one of the Bald Eagles in a fallow field along 997 (I
think that's the road north from Everglades NP to Hwy 41 and 75?) had
a transmitter on its back.

USGS doesn't have a category for reporting collared eagles, perhaps
y'all know of a local project?

In no time at all, "tricia" had responded to my post with:
It is probably one of Brian Mealey's birds.
follow this link and you can email him.
http://www.instwildlifesciences.org/eaglemain.html

So much for my own sleuthing! At least we had enough information from our sighting to e-mail Brian and sound more intelligent than "we saw an eagle and it had an antenna on it" - I'm sure researchers get that a lot.



Matt pointing to the Bald Eagle in a fallow field - there were also White Ibis, Black-necked Stilts, Laughing Gulls, American Crows, and Boat-tailed Grackles present. Then a tractor scared them. Sigh.

My e-mail to Brian:
My husband and I were on our way from Everglade NP back to hwy 41 and
maybe a mile south of the "Robert is here" fruit stand on 997, we
passed a fallow field with two eagles. One of them had a transmitter
backpack - since we didn't see bands or wing tags, I'm not sure that
the sighting is of any use to you, since the transmitter is probably
working... just wanted to say that it was quite a highlight on our
trip =) Exact date would be 7/28/09, I'd have to get back to you on
what time in the afternoon, though.

Brian's enthusiastic response:
Thank you Heidi!

Always useful and it great to know that folks are always on the look
out for wildlife!

I'm attaching a map of the most recent movement of Camp Eagle (56105)
includes your sighting.

Camp Eagle was banded as a nestling (about 50 days old) and fitted
with a transmitter back in March 2005! She's beating the odds of
survival!!!!! Yeah!

[truncated here -h]

If that first map wasn't nifty enough, here's the detailed map of SE FL activities during the time that Matt and I saw "Camp Eagle" (when was the last time you could put the name to a bird you were watching? ...on a project that's not yours??)



This map is infinitely cool, not just because it shows ample movement in the protected zone of Everglades National Park and tracks adventures east of Homestead, but because it even highlights the fruity awesomeness that is the "Robert is Here" fruit stand! And of course, we were just a bit south of "Robert is Here" when we saw "Camp Eagle," so our story has been validated with a bit of telemetry handiwork.

In the meantime, Brian reports that he is in the midst of analysis and manuscript work, so at some point in the near future, we'll get to find out what information "Camp Eagle" contributed by toting around the transmitter.

from "the Marvelous in nature" to you...

Seabrooke is a nature blogger like no other (and a bander as well!). One of her recent posts is an absolute must-read for anyone curious about banding. Why is it done? Who does it? What data is collected? While her post is geared towards her specific banding site (not all locations are seasonal), it also addresses a lot of the basics.

Without further ado, "On banding birds" from the Marvelous in nature."

An excerpt from the comments:

...a bird in its lifetime only ever gets the one silver, numbered band, unless that one is so old, and so worn, that the numbers are hard to read, in which case it’s removed and replaced. It only ever wears one at a time, though. Some projects will also put coloured plastic bands on them in addition to the silver ones, to make them easier to identify from a distance...

Colored leg bands (FL Scrub Jay) and wing tags (Am. White Pelican) are what this blog was started for - the ridiculously neat birds we've spotted in our adventures. Hopefully your path will cross with some of these critters, their stories are all unique and definitely worth the effort to look up!